There's currently a protest outside Skehan's offices by the usual suspects

Quote:

However, his Sinn Féin colleague on the council Noeleen O’Reilly was reported by RTÉ in October 2016 as saying she was aware of families making themselves homeless to avoid a wait of up to 15 years to be housed.

“I know families that have done it” she is reported to have said at a council housing meeting, “they are fearful of their future and their own security, that’s why it’s happening”. She is also reported to have said that while other local authorities would look at people’s situation before providing homeless services “we [in Dublin] seem to accept everyone”.

Speaking to The Irish Times on Tuesday Ms O’Reilly said her remarks had been “twisted and taken out of context”.

“What I said was that people were in a desperate situation and are being forced into homelessness. A lot people are living in overcrowded situations, in family situations that are not suitable,” she said.

“There are all sorts of complex reasons people become homeless, but I was not victim blaming or saying people were gaming the system.”

except some still agree

Quote:

TranscriptA transcript of the housing meeting is not available, but minutes of the meeting show Mr Downey, then acting director of the Dublin Regional Homeless Executive, urged councillors to advise constituents that using hotels for housing was “inadequate and inappropriate” and all efforts to avoid presentation to homeless emergency accommodation must be engaged with.

Independent Dublin city councillor Ruairí McGinley said he had experience of constituents who should be on the housing list moving to the homeless list. “It is not a news flash to me and anyone who says anything different who deals with housing cases is being dishonest and I know that from conversations I’ve had with other councillors over recent years.”

Independent Fingal county councillor Jimmy Guerin said he had “direct experience that many people are declaring themselves homeless in order to jump the unacceptably long queue for social housing, some even admit it when they seek assistance”.

The Housing Agency is fundinglocal authorities and AHBs to buy up existing housing stock.

To date 260 houses and 114 apartments have been bought for a total cost of €67.2 million or an average of just under €180,000 each – significantly below market prices, agency chairman Conor Skehan said.

This is at the minimum or indeed below figures quoted for new build social housing on this thread. There is also no messing with the planning system or land acquisition needed.

I officially opened one of the biggest social housing projects in the country on the site of the old Limerick Clothing Factory. €19 million has been invested here to build 81 homes – 57 for elderly residents and 24 will be provided to families. It was fantastic to see this plan come to fruition and meet some of the new residents.

So about €234k per unit in Limerick, a city not known for expensive housing.

Some of these are likely to have been only one-bed given that they are for the elderly.

An extra €10 million is needed to rebuild the 1960s social housing flat complex at Dominick Street in Dublin, which is more than a year behind in its development, according to new information from Dublin City Council.Former minister for housing Simon Coveney had in June last year allocated €22 million for the regeneration of the 1960s flat complex which faces the new Cross City Luas line, just off Parnell Street in the north inner city.Work was to start in autumn 2016 with residents due to move in to their new homes early next year. However, work has yet to begin on the 72 apartments.

Here's an update:

Plans to regenerate Dominick Street Flats in Dublin are running a full year behind schedule, with the complex of 72 social housing apartments now expected to be built by 2021.The local authority published a tender seeking a construction firm for the project this week, with the estimated cost at around €39.5 million.

Development coming in at a cool €550k per unit, on land that DCC already owns.